COMBATTING CORRUPTION

UNDERSTANDING ANTI-CORRUPTION INITIATIVES IN MALAYSIA

By Nur syafinaz binti Ghani

Below is a review of “Combatting Corruption: Understanding Anti-Corruption Initiatives in Malaysia” written by Datuk Dr. Anis Yusal Yusoff, Sri Murniati, and Jenny Gryzelius. This book contains 183 pages with 6 chapters and in the size of B6, which makes it handy and convenient for the readers. The book was published by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) in April 2013. Note that Datuk Dr. Anis Yusal Yusoff has actively been promoting good governance and integrity for over two decades through his writings and his previous works with the United Nations Development Programme and the Malaysian Institute of Integrity. While Sri Murniati is a researcher and Jenny Gryzelius is a senior researcher at IDEAS.

The book attempts to add literature through compiling the history of fighting corruption in Malaysia, promoting the integrity and by providing an overview of initiatives taken over the last few decades by various agencies, groups and organisations. This book reinforces the belief that corruption is undeniably a complex issue that is dreadful and difficult to eradicate. This work is well structured within 6 chapters. The analysis started by providing a comprehensive historical overview of the efforts to combat corruptions through legal and institutional mechanisms since Malaysian independence. As stated in the book, the initiatives in curbing corruptions in Malaysia began with the introduction of the corruption ordinance by the British government. It was later followed by the relentless initiatives of the Malaysian government under Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak. The authors believed that their initiatives serve as a strong evidence of the government’s seriousness in combatting corruptions.

Furthermore, the authors examined the extent of the Malaysian government’s success in implementing strategies and initiatives to combat corruptions. The authors suggested that corruption in Malaysia requires coherent strategies for prevention and deterrence, rather than the existing initiatives that solely focus on detection. The work argues that targeted multi-dimensional strategies and initiatives are needed in dealing with the issue. While Malaysia has implemented many initiatives to combat corruptions, these initiatives, however, hampered by lack of coordination and coherences between the agencies and implementation groups. The authors, thus, recommended the establishment of an inter-agency working committee to coordinate the strategies and initiatives.

Adding to that, the authors also discussed the implications of corruption in Malaysia from three major perspectives; democratic, economic, and social. To better understand the issue and its damaging implications, many tables of statistics concerning corruption were cited as a guide. This work also proposed that any future amendment to anti-corruption initiatives must take into consideration its historical development, as these initiatives are often build upon each other.

The key chapter of this book is chapter three, where the author has set a goal of getting people to know the details of anti-corruption measures in Malaysia since 2004. In this section, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is narrated as the main anti-corruption agency. MACC has inspected the Monorail Train project, the commercial vehicle examination system, the low cost housing allocation and many more. Besides, Malaysian Government has also established different institutions to accelerate the fight against corruption. Namely, Public Complaints Bureau (Jabatan Perpaduan Awam), the Integrity Management Committee, the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM), the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and others.

This book is organized into 6 chapters. The first chapter explains a historical overview of efforts to combat corruption. In 1958, Shah Nazir Alam, a high ranking police officer from Pakistan was invited to conduct the study on how to tackle corruption in Malaysia and he recommended the undertaking of a sustained and comprehensive programme of moral education, mainly in schools and through public information services. He also recommended that books containing short stories with moral lesson should be published and sold. Next, the second chapter clarifies the cost of corruption in Malaysia. Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) were created by the Transparency International to measure the level of corruption in Malaysia. Further, the third chapter presents the examples of anti-corruption initiatives in Malaysia since 2004. Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), as the main anti-corruption agency, has taken several initiatives to fight corruption such as inspecting the agencies procedures and systems.

As the previous chapters have shown a wide range of initiatives undertaken by the government and civil society organisations to tackle corruption in Malaysia, the fourth chapter, hence, evaluates the initiatives. Based on the available studies on anti-corruption strategies in Malaysia, the authors described the Malaysia’s anti-corruption frameworks and strategies as comprehensive and elaborate. However, these frameworks and strategies may not be effective in tackling the issues because they do not address the root causes of corruption in Malaysia. The fifth chapter concludes the writing and suggests the recommendations to current anti-corruption initiatives in combatting corruption. Finally, the authors documented a lengthy and comprehensive annotated bibliography of selected journal articles and books on anti-corruption strategies in the last chapter.

This book, as overall, is very insightful. People who are interested in literature concerning corruption will most probably find this book as valuable. This book also helps stakeholders to evaluate previous initiatives while at the same time encourages critical discussion among those who involved in fighting corruption. This book is significant in providing useful guidance for officers especially from Bahagian Reformasi Sektor Awam (BRSA) in keeping integrity and combatting corruption during its new step of reforms.